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To: UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley: Cut your ties to Palantir!

We did it! Palantir has been dropped!

"We welcome the decision by Privacy Law Scholars Conference in Berkeley to drop their ties with Palantir. Palantir’s technology provides direct support for ICE to separate immigrant families, and UC Berkeley should not provide free publicity or access to this or any other company that aligns itself with Trump's anti-immigrant agenda. People are being deported, children are being caged, and Palantir is knowingly facilitating these deeds.

Palantir is not just any vendor. It does not simply sell off-the-shelf solutions to government agencies. When it contracts with the government, Palantir provides “ongoing training and support” to their government counterparts, helping them configure their systems for optimal use.

Those who care about human rights must not only push back on the governments that violate them but also the companies that enable them. This is why we call on recruitment offices and academic conferences everywhere to drop their ties with Palantir until the company cancels its contract with ICE.

On every campus where Palantir has an office, it’s past time we tell Palantir: you are not welcome here.”

- Jacinta Gonzalez, senior campaign organizer, Mijente

Berkeley Law School must drop Palantir as a sponsor of its privacy conference—stop whitewashing a company that’s “mission critical” to ICE’s deportation machine!

Why is this important?

Palantir Technologies is one of three sponsors of the 2019 Annual Privacy Law Scholars Conference at U.C. Berkeley, a conference of privacy scholars from across the world that brings together computer scientists, economists, philosophers, political scientists, advocates, lawyers, and many others.

Palantir, a Palo Alto data-mining firm founded by Peter Thiel, has a contract with ICE that has aided in family separation by helping ICE arrest the parents and other relatives of children who crossed the border alone. Palantir's contract has been called "mission critical" to ICE's efforts by government documents.

We're asking that scholars from across the country denounce this partnership with Palantir. Academic conferences should not be sponsored by firms engaged in human rights abuses, as denounced by the United Nations and dozens of civil society organizations. That a conference focused on privacy is sponsored by a firm whose profits derive from the mass accumulation of personal data for sale to law enforcement agencies is patently absurd.

Updates

2019-06-11 20:58:48 -0400

Petition is successful with 3,970 signatures

2019-05-28 11:40:26 -0400

1,000 signatures reached

2019-05-28 10:25:48 -0400

500 signatures reached

2019-05-28 09:31:10 -0400

100 signatures reached

2019-05-28 09:27:02 -0400

50 signatures reached

2019-05-28 09:24:03 -0400

25 signatures reached

2019-05-28 09:21:46 -0400

10 signatures reached